Too Much Sex, Violence In Regional Cinema, Says Leela Samson

Mumbai, Jun 14: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson, Leela Samson, today expressed concern over the growing trend of violent and sexually explicit material in regional cinema and intended to work on it.“We

PTI [ Updated: June 14, 2011 18:38 IST ]

too much sex violence in regional cinema says leela samson

Mumbai, Jun 14: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson, Leela Samson, today expressed concern over the growing trend of violent and sexually explicit material in regional cinema and intended to work on it.

“We are concerned about a growing trend of extremely violent cinema, especially in the regional language cinema while picturisation and lyrics of Bhojpuri cinema are almost pornographic. We will take corrective measures and hope to have industry and civil society's backing on this,” Samson said at an event here.

She was speaking at ‘Samvad CBFC,' an interactive session organised by the CBFC and the CII on cinema and certification.

Besides film directors, producers, actors and artists even environmentalists, and government officials from across the country exchanged their views on film certification. “All of us cease to identify the board loosely as the censor board of India, which is how we commonly refer to the board. May I remind all of you that it is the certification board and not the censor board,” she said.

Intending to call it as the Indian Board of Film Classification, Samson said, “It might also be prudent to recommend to our ministry and to the government that instead of central board of film certification, we call ourselves Indian board of film classification”.

We have moved into global mainstream and the tag of Central from our current name has little relevance abroad. We may consider replacing it with ‘Indian', which is what we are so proud to be,” she added.

Besides the logo of CBFC, the quintessential censor certificate too is being redesigned by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. In order to create transparency in issuing certificates, CBFC will soon initiate the process of applying online, Samson said.

“As we move forward in an atmosphere of transparency, process for applying for the classification of a film can soon be initiated online and that the online process will include a cut-off date by which the classification will be made. The classification certificate will also be online,” she said.

It has been decided that films certified in 3D format need not be re-certified in 2D. This will save production house's time and money, the chairperson said.

Sharing her views on categorisation of film certificates, Samson said, “It is my personal experience that the audience still does not understand the meaning of UA category. Also, an A-rated film is considered to be sleazy or inappropriate, which is not true. There are a whole lot of other factors that fetch a film an A-rating and some of these films are classy and highly recommended viewing for adult audience”. PTI